So I have been around long enough to know that people of all ages seem to get this particular allergy or an intolerance to it... But I have also noticed that many of the people "I" know who have it are women. Not ALL... But many. I've also started to wonder if many of us are close in age.

So I am a bit curious about the people living with this if anyone cares to share a bit about themselves... I'd love to know. I didn't see another thread in this section doing it so...

I'll start:

Female
Age 28
Predominantly Scottish background with a mixture of other things.
Raised partially in the country, partially in the city.
Family history of being farmers (grandparents and prior)
Other allergies: Walnuts, Erythromycin, Amoxicillin, Penicillin, Tylenol, Codine, Gravol, Dust Mites, Purple Strife pollen, and ALL Corn - no matter the source - Even the steam from popcorn, oil, pollen, etc.
ETA: Aerosol and most "propellants"

Child: No known allergies at this time

Parents: Environmental, Bees, Mold.

I now have specially compounded Benydryl, and Ibuprofen, as well as carrying an Epi-Pen.

In short... Anaphylaxis from corn is possible (no matter what the "experts" say). And no... Not just from the "protine". I will respond to a drop of corn oil, or pop corn being made. I am now so finely tuned to it that I can smell pop corn being popped from approximately 1000 meters.

I live corn free most of the time (it is not easy and accidents happen a lot). Living corn free with a child who attends school has been interesting. It was especially special getting the popcorn art coming home. *blink* I love my child, I love her kisses, hugs and snuggles... They also put my body into reaction from time to time because others don't or won't listen when I say "NO! She cannot have that (insert name of food)!"

Female
Age 31
Primarily German background with a drop of English blood from those that have lived in the US the longest (close to 400 years).

Family history of pretty much everything from the poorest of the poor to the extremely wealthy with lots of financial ebbs and flows. Wide range of professions, but education highly emphasized no matter the family fortunes.

Ingestion Food Allergy Reaction Symptoms: Diarrhea, stomach pain, tightening of throat, buzzing mouth. Diarrhea can last up to 24 hours per exposure. Always triggers 24 hours of paralysis causing me to be bed ridden. Trapped in the bathroom and then trapped on a bed for 48 hours SUCKS!

Skin Reaction to touching Materials or Food Allergens: Hives, pain, cuts, and rashes. These are minor, but tend to show up in embarrassing and painful places. I hate Corned Toilet paper.

My skin is so sensitive that if I touch a material with my finger tip, I can tell you the exact composition of the material based on the pain load and why type of pain I am having. Been able to do this since I was a young child. No frufru dresses for me (lace is evil).

Popcorn is my single worst allergy. I don't know if it is because it combines so many of my food allergens in one and is designed to spread so much in the air when heated. I react to Popcorn at least 200 feet away from where it was cooked even hours later. See inhallant reaction. I start to recover if someone drags my carcass to fresh air.

Popcorn is my single worst allergy. I don't know if it is because it combines so many of my food allergens in one and is designed to spread so much in the air when heated. I react to Popcorn at least 200 feet away from where it was cooked even hours later. See inhallant reaction. I start to recover if someone drags my carcass to fresh air.

OMG! I am so with you on popcorn being the worst. Only I figured out that if I have Benydryl in my system I can simply have "fluttery lungs", and respiratory distress that I can mostly manage with an inhaler ( that I shouldn't take because it sets me off too)- which I of course won't do hospital or epi-pen over till my lips are turning blue. (Someone slap me for being stubborn) Not great but so far it has kept me from having more than severe distress and my body automatically shutting down and putting me in something like a sleep mode once I am to a safe area.

I hate going to ERs after being exposed to popcorn, because at most a hospital will do for me in that situation is give me an IV. If I am really lucky they might give me Oxygen. 50% of the time I get told to stop faking it and get thrown in the hallway with the suspected crazies (not saying they were crazy, just that that was were patients the doctors didn't want to treat were dumped).

I have never successfully taken my Epi-Pen. Since I paralyze when exposed to Popcorn, I can't get the Epi-Pen out of my purse. Even if I recover enough to do so, I am usually too weak to push the Epi-Pen in my skin.

The people around me refuse to apply the Epi-Pen, because they don't want to be liable if they screwed up.

I begged my company to have people trained in using the Epi-Pen (because there were at least two other people who went into Anaphalyctic Shock due to food), but they refused. I requested it to be part of the company's standard CPR classes. I told them that I would personally pay for the training if that was the problem.

In the end my advocacy for Disability Rights, helped put the nails in my career coffin.

I hate going to ERs after being exposed to popcorn, because at most a hospital will do for me in that situation is give me an IV. If I am really lucky they might give me Oxygen. 50% of the time I get told to stop faking it and get thrown in the hallway with the suspected crazies (not saying they were crazy, just that that was were patients the doctors didn't want to treat were dumped).

I have never successfully taken my Epi-Pen. Since I paralyze when exposed to Popcorn, I can't get the Epi-Pen out of my purse. Even if I recover enough to do so, I am usually too weak to push the Epi-Pen in my skin.

I have allergic reactions to Benedryl.

I can NOT take over the counter.

I have it specially compounded. I mean there are 3 things in these. My prescription coverage won't touch it because the active ingredient is in the raw form so there isn't even a DIN number... The filler is lactose that I can handle. And the gelatin like casing is actually made from animal marrow.

Is it the diphenhydramine hydrochloride it's self or the brand?

I have only successfully taken one Epi-Pen - and that was years ago.

I am lucky though... The hospital here KNOWS my allergy. Every person around me reads the "list" on my cards at least once. I have a flag on my file saying NO IV's, I have a flag on my file saying to get the glass syringes (yeah - Oshawa's hospital still has some). I had to have minor surgery so I worked with a pharmacological student to find safer products to be used on me. I am very lucky.

They don't even treat me like a nut now... Lil miss ran into a brick wall and needed to got o the hospital... I had a blood sugar crash while giving information at the triage nurse's desk and refused any options they could provide and gave the things I could not have to them as a mini-list. They checked the whole hospital and the closest they could have come was an orange. I declined and decided to wait it out. We were home within 1hr 50 min of leaving it and we'd spent 45 min + in emerge that day so for them to move us through that fast is pretty amazing.

As for the career suicide: I am with you. I now own my own company and work from home. No... There isn't anyone to give me the Epi-Pen but at least in my home I can control what comes in better.

Now... You might want to check into it but it is entirely possible that in refusing to train the employees... They can actually be charged with negligence.

I know there are various Laws like Sabrina's Law...

Quote:

Sabrina’s Law - Effective January 1, 2006

Sabrina’s Law, an Act to Protect Anaphylactic Pupils, was named after a young girl who died of anaphylactic shock following exposure in her school.

This law came into effect in January, 2006. It protects students with life threatening allergies. It requires all school boards to establish and maintain an anaphylactic policy, which must include strategies to reduce risk of exposure to anaphylactic causative agents in classrooms and common school areas.

The school board must develop a communication plan to share information on life threatening allergies with parents, pupils, and employees. This plan should include information on the symptoms of anaphylactic shock.

The school board must provide training on dealing with life threatening allergies for all employees in regular contact with students.

The school board must ensure there is a storage plan for Epi-pens, and that there is a plan for using them in emergency situations.

In fact... Depending on where you live they might HAVE to STOCK it, and TRAIN people and if they tried to FIRE you if you want the legal way of making it happen they would be bankrupt should you so choose. Can you tell I have an issue with workplaces like that?

I can have the Lactated Ringers IV. It really helps when I get dehydrated.

I live in the US. Due to a Supreme Court ruling, people like myself with progressive disorders are not covered under ADA laws. Only "fixed" disabilities like permanent blindness or paralysis are covered. Not all businesses know this, so sometimes you can get away by threatening an ADA lawsuit in order to get accommodations.

I ended getting long term disability pay from my company. However, it will only cover me for two years, because no doctor is willing to say I have food allergies or problems with paralyzing. Doesn't matter how many times I fall down paralyzed on the floor for at least an hour per day.

I had to agree to a statement from a psychologist that I was crazy to get the long term disability pay. Nothing in my life has been more violating.

Have you considered something in computers where you can work from home?

As for the Benydryl... I can try to find out the actual names of the 2 other ingredients... maybe a pharmacy could give you test samples to take in a controlled environment. That is what they did for me.

Only downside - had to get them 100 at a time and as I mentioned - not covered... upside - not overly expensive at about 1$ a pill (yeah ok... not a great price but worth it).

Right now no doctor would write me a prescription for a medication. Part of the price of being labelled crazy.

I am a Computer Engineer. Part of the problem is I want to do big and awesome things with computers and electronics, but I am still dealing with some nasty low energy issues. I want to start designing Robots for Home Electronics to help disabled people. Trying to figure out financing.

Financing can be a pain in the bum without an "Angel" for some projects...

They wouldn't even write you one for something to be compounded specially... in the strength available over the counter? That was what I pushed for at first... Then they decided to let me choose the strength.

My life with corn allergies pretty much reads like an open book on here already. I've been posting my experiences, reactions, discoveries, safe lists, etc. on this forum for about 3 years now. I am 54 years old of German descent and I was diagnosed with corn allergy as an infant. At that time it was common to feed babies a homemade formula made with canned (evaporated) milk, sterilized water and corn syrup. I was a very, very sick baby for the first 6 or so months of my life. It was when I was taken off this formula and given plain cow's milk (no vitamins were added back then) that my health improved dramatically (within a couple of days). I had to avoid all corn, but it was easy back then...no corn, no cornstarch, no corn oil, no corn syrup, etc. My health continued to improve. The only lasting effect of the corn syrup was that my primary teeth came in totally rotten (black) and I had to have them ALL pulled at age 4.

I did great on a corn free diet up until about the mid-1970's when they started putting corn into EVERYTHING! My reactions include major breakouts, large painful cysts (that take months to go away), eye/vision problems, swelling of eyelids and face, migraines, painful swelling of the bone behind my ears, bumps on the back of my neck, numbness in my hands and feet...I'm sure that there are more but I can't remember right now. I had to have several surgeries to remove some rather large cysts on my eyelids that were interfering with my eyesight. I went through a LOT of grief as a young woman with such unsightly (and painful) skin. I saw a dermatologist for about 6 years and she was of no help whatsoever...my skin got worse instead of better. Over the past 10 years (since learning all of the hidden sources for corn) I have been doing much better. I've had a few setbacks...such as with the store-bought meat (rinsed with citric acid) to which I had MAJOR reactions. That took me forever to figure out. Corn fed meat and poultry is not a problem for me...just what they are putting ON the meat!

I am the only person in my family with a food allergy.

I also have a lot of trouble with popcorn fumes. Perfume and scented products (made with corn alcohol) totally do me in.

I've probably posted this elsewhere, but I do have a corn allergy--thankfully not as severe as other people posting here. I've reacted to corn on and off since I was a child . . . I never considered it an "allergy" per se--I would just avoid blatant corn (i.e. as a vegetable) if it started to make my throat itchy. When eating corn on the cob, sometimes I could have a whole cob and sometimes not. Products with corn starch made my throat sting slightly, but I didn't pay any attention to it--it happened so frequently that I thought it was normal.

But my allergies in general have gotten out of control. My diet became more corn based when wheat was pulled. It got to the point where a small amount of corn made my throat itchy right away. I did test positive for corn allergy on the SPT and also on the RAST (and after several years, my allergist ran the RAST test for corn again with the same results.)

Interestingly, when hearing my 'corn allergy' story, my allergist thought that I probably had an 'intolerance' to corn rather than an IgE-mediated allergy (he didn't say I *did* have an intolerance--he wanted to do the RAST test--but that was his initial guess.) But in my experience it is possible to have variable reactions to some foods and to have an IgE mediated allergy!

BTW, Shelley--my allergist does agree that it is possible to have an ana reaction to corn. He definitely counts as 'an expert'--he knows all the research.

I have corn in the following products: Benadryl, milk, apple juice (ascorbic acid). Probably in other things too that I don't want to know about. I haven't taken an antihistamine pill in awhile because the last time I did, I had a slightly upset stomach. Could have been a coincidence . . .but also could have been the corn starch.

Helen you are very lucky yours knows their stuff... I'm avoiding almost all of them now because of the "oops" from the last time. I've actually had better results talking to people in homeopathic medicine than traditional medicine about it... But I do have to say that the guy I saw did write the prescriptions once he realized mine was not "typical".

He was the third "allergist" I spoke to directly and the 6th I had communicated with through methods other than face to face. They all told me the same thing as he did: Only the protine. I had to show him it wasn't just that for me.

I think I may have had a bit of the throat sting or itch in the past but I didn't pay any more attention to that then I did to occasional rashes, or summer "flu bugs" (now I know it was corn).

What I am finding interesting in reading this is that most of us have varied responses and body reactions based on the way it is processed, or the format it is in... And that this seems to often become more severe, or we seem to become more sensitive to it as we go along. It really makes me wonder how many just figure it is "normal" and shrug it off.

I thought my Diarrhea was normal until I saw a South Park episode. Seriously. I saw an episode with the Christmas Poo. I didn't understand any of the jokes related to it, because I had never had a solid ---- before in my life.

Although embarrased, I asked my friends about the Christmas Poo jokes. They explained it to me. That is when I realized that I had a problem. I then looked up what my watery and painful poos were called. Eventually this lead me to getting tested for food allergies and my diagnosis.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum